At 16, Yaryna should be preparing for her school graduation, thinking about university, and dreaming of a future in a free Ukraine.
Instead, she spent her final school years under Russian occupation — in her half-destroyed hometown of Mariupol, where every day has been a fight to survive.

Forced to attend a Russian-controlled school, she quickly realized that education was no longer the goal.
Students were sent door to door to report who had stayed in the city and who had fled. Later, Yaryna was assigned to a so-called “rescue squad,” trained to provide first aid and maintain “physical readiness.” In reality, she and her classmates were being prepared for war.

One day, Russian soldiers came to conduct a “Youth Army” training.
Children learned to assemble rifles, practice shooting, and take cover in mock trenches set up in the gym. Their shooting targets were photos of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
The “best” students were then sent to Moscow to visit a war museum — to be “inspired” to serve their new “homeland.”

But Yaryna never accepted that future. She kept looking for a way to escape — and finally, with Save Ukraine’s help, she did.
Today she is safe, back in school, and preparing for university. For the first time in years, she can speak freely, study, and dream again.

At Save Ukraine, we fight every day so that more children like Yaryna can have that same chance — to live without fear, to speak their language, to hope. Because no one has the right to steal childhood.

Read, share, and support our mission to bring every child home here.